The RBHS Feeding COMO club will be holding a Star Wars themed event  May 4 from 12:00-3:00 p.m.. It will be held at Leech Shelter at Bethel Park and is open to the public.

The event’s main focus is to raise awareness about food insecurity, and Feeding COMO is working with The Food Bank of Central & Northeastern Missouri to encourage donations. A range of activities will take place, and attendees can have lunch, play games and listen to guest speakers.

Feeding COMO is a new club at RBHS, founded in November 2023. The co-founders, sophomores Mira Tosh and Vasumathi Raghavan, became passionate about food insecurity during a civics lesson on the topic. Tosh said a project she did about the issue inspired her to hold an event similar to this Saturday’s last year.

“It kind of started out as a potluck and Vasu came,” Tosh said. “And I think we both saw a very good opportunity for this to be an annual thing to raise money and awareness for food security.”

Raghavan said she was happy to help Tosh create the club and is excited to hold more such events. The potluck will be accepting both monetary donations or canned goods. All donations made from the event will be given to The Food Bank to be used as they see fit.

“[The donations] will be used to fund [The Food Bank’s] programs, including senior boxes, veteran boxes and school pantries,” Raghavan said, “ — just kind of finding [areas that need funding] and directly feeding people.”

The Food Bank is an organization that works closely with Feeding COMO, and The Food Bank’s Marketing & Communications Strategist Lauren Jaworski said the organization has “loved” their partnership with the club. Although this is not their event, Jawkorski said they are appreciative of any donations they will receive. 

“The majority of our funding as an organization comes from our community of donors,” Jaworski said. “So that support is really valued and really foundational.”

The club plans to expand and grow over the next few years, ambitious to gain new members and work with other organizations besides The Food Bank, such as Loaves and Fishes, a local soup kitchen, and the American Red Cross. Tosh said in addition to raising awareness, the purpose of Feeding COMO is to decrease the stigma around receiving food assistance.

“There’s a lot of people my age who are not aware of food insecurity,” Tosh said. “I think raising awareness about that encourages people to get involved, whether it be through volunteering or fundraising.”

Are you going to the Feeding COMO potluck? Let us know in the comments below.